


hole in the sky

by discordiansamba



Series: abyss of memory [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Amnesia, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 06:19:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,906
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14538528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/discordiansamba/pseuds/discordiansamba
Summary: When one of your own looks like the enemy, suddenly the concept of the hoktril becomes much, much more terrifying.(sequel toabyss of memory)





	hole in the sky

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, hello! I did promise that I would come back to this verse at some point, and thus, here I am! Hole in the Sky was an episode with just so many interesting implications to it, so it was fun to play around with a scenario in which it happens while Keith is far, far more Galra. The fun part is that I'll eventually get the chance to do it again once burgundy gets to that point, so that's like, double the fun!
> 
> I did also kind of want to touch on the idea of Shiro still being around for this episode, but it's not really the main focus of the fic.

"Does this feel like a haunted ghost ship to anybody else? Is it just me?"

"What's a ghost ship?"

"Wow seriously, Keith? Just how much of your brain did that creepy witch nuke?"

Frowning, Kethe's brows furrowed together. "What does that even _mean_?"

"Okay you two," Shiro piped up, glancing between them, "-this isn't exactly the best time for this. Keith, I'll explain about ghost ships when we get back to the Castle."

Satisfied with that, he buried his curiosity for the time being. He had a point- the situation they were in now was strange, to say the least. Picking up on an old Altean distress code? Finding an old Altean ship lodged in some kind of strange quintessence wormhole? Whatever was going on here was definitely weird.

Casting his gaze up ahead, to where the princess had decided to take up the lead position, he frowned. The moment she had picked up the distress call, she had been acting strange. Or... well, he thought she was. Maybe?

He'd only known her for like, four, maybe five weeks, and for most of that time frame, they had largely been avoiding the other. Maybe this was just normal.

He didn't know how to feel about the chance of there being more Alteans. They probably wouldn't take kindly to there being a Galra on their ship, and though he had darkened his helmet as much as it could allow, relying on his night vision to guide him, there wasn't much he could do about his tail.

He honestly hadn't wanted to come.

But he was a paladin of Voltron, so he had no choice.

He'd tried to protest- but the princess, she had been... well, _very_ insistent. And she did not seem to take at all kindly to his objections. In her mind, no doubt he was only trying to keep her from meeting more of her own kind.

He just didn't want to rush into a trap, that was all. The Blade of Marmora did not move until it possessed sufficient intelligence, but it would seem that the same could not be said about Voltron.

Ears twitching in his cramped helmet, Kethe turned his head with a frown. He didn't know how the princess did it, having even longer hair than he did- he'd had to cram his braid into it, since he couldn't just let it dangle and wrap it around his neck, like he did in his Marmoran armor.

"Something wrong, Keith?" Pidge asked, glancing back at him. "You hear something?"

"Not sure." Turning back to look at her, Kethe shook his head. "Can't hear as well as I'd like with-" lifting up his hands to indicate his helmet, "-this thing."

The rest of his paladin armor, though strange and unfamiliar, fit him just fine, having had to have been rebuilt from scratch. But the helmet was the only piece of the original red paladin armor that they had been able to salvage- apparently he had left it behind with his bayard when he had been taken by the Galra Empire.

Or well, that was what they told him. He didn't remember.

"You know, I could have a look at it, if you want." She offered. "All Coran did was repair the crack, but I can see if I can make some adjustments to make it more comfortable."

"I... might take you up on that." Kethe said.

"Cool. Just bring it to me once we're done with... well, whatever this is, I guess." She said, turning her gaze forward.

"You still think it's a trap?" Hunk piped up.

"I'm just saying, it's a possibility." Kethe told him, tail twitching indignantly. Just because he didn't have memories, that didn't make him an _idiot_. This whole thing still smelled like a trap to him. "This whole situation is weird."

"As weird as getting your memories stolen by a space witch?" Lance chimed in.

"Yes." Kethe said flatly.

It wasn't that he didn't know how strange his own situation was- how could he _not_?

"Yeah, okay, just checking." Lance told him. "But let us know if you do hear something with those Galra ears of yours."

Tilting his head, Kethe couldn't help but wonder why he needed to specify that they were _Galra_ ears. Of course they were Galra ears, _he_ was Galra- technically, even when he looked human, which was still a surreal tidbit of information that he couldn't quite wrap his head around, they _still_ would have been Galra ears.

On account of, you know, the whole half Galra thing.

Probably?

Probably.

At least, Kolivan seemed to think so. When he had shown him Keith's- his? _his_ \- knife, he had examined it, determining that indeed, it was one of theirs. Unlike the blade he had gone through the trials with, he could not wake it- but he still kept it, seeing as Kolivan made no move to take it back.

Shiro, the only one who had cause to know anything about his life before the Galaxy Garrison- whatever _that_ was- had confirmed that he'd always had that knife for as long as he knew him, but also that he had no idea where it came from.

It was just another puzzling piece of a past that he could not for the life of him remember. Kolivan had promised him that he would look into the matter himself, but if there was one thing he had learned about seeking answers, it was that they generally only ended up giving him even more questions.

Apparently, he'd been needlessly enigmatic in the past. _Not helpful_ , Keith.

Was insulting himself going to give him any answers? No, but it sure as hell made him feel better.

(What was _hell_. He'd have to add that to his growing list of things to ask Shiro.)

"Trust me, if I hear anything, you'll be the first to know." Kethe retorted.

"Okay you two, quiet down back there." Shiro called back.

Tail twitching, Kethe couldn't help but frown, but he did do what was requested of him. He _still_ thought this was a bad idea.

At least the ship's systems still seemed to work, once the princess switched them back on. The Blade had been teaching him how to fight in zero gravity, but it wasn't his strongest suit. He wondered if he could get the training deck on the castle-ship to replicate the settings that they used for that type of combat simulation.

Lance's scream caught his ears. His first instinct was to reach around for his knife- except he didn't have it with him, having left both of them behind on the castle-ship. He still hadn't gotten used to the idea of using his bayard- summoning it wasn't as instinctive to him yet.

Looked like there was no need for it, though.

He was just freaking out over a corpse in a spacesuit. Which... he had to admit, was kind of creepy. Coupled with the video footage that Allura managed to dig up, the ship's last log, it was enough to tell them that something terrible had happened here.

It wasn't a question that he had long to dwell on, his ears twitching, gaze fixing up towards the ceiling. He wasn't just imagining things- there was someone else here aside from them.

By the time they came bursting out of the vent, he'd already drawn his bayard. There were a pair, clad in black, their faces obscured by their darkened helmets. Whoever they were, they immediately pegged them as hostile, so he returned the favor.

The bayard sword was good, he decided. Its weight was still strange and unfamiliar in his hands, but it sliced through the stranger's blaster as if it were nothing.

When the taller one's helmet cracked, breaking into small pieces, the paladins froze, and it took Kethe a moment to place why.

"... _Shiro_?"

Lance's whisper caught his ears, and he turned towards him, then back towards the hostile stranger, before turning back towards Shiro again- who looked just as wide eyed and astonished by this development as the rest of them. He did look a little like him, but...

Switching his helmet to visor mode, Kethe took a whiff of the air, now perking upright. They looked a little like each other, but their scents... their scents were nearly identical.

And his scent wasn't the only scent that he recognized either. Was that- was that _Slav_?

Kethe's noise crinkled in displeasure. He didn't like Slav. He treated him like some kind of statistical improbability, citing the high number of realities in which his capture resulted in everything going horribly wrong, and the very, _very_ low number in which they didn't.

"Who- who _are_ you?" Shiro asked, not yet powering down his arm, but certainly in less of a battle ready stance.

It was clear nobody was expecting the accent. It even threw Kethe off for a moment. "I am Sven. I should be asking who _you_ are."

"Shiro." Shiro told him. "I'm a paladin of Voltron."

That didn't seem to mean _anything_ to them, he recognized.

"He smells like you." Kethe informed him, not too keen on whispering. "That one smells like Slav."

"What- _Slav_!?" Lance blurted out, before letting out a low groan. " _Slav's_ here? Oh great, just what we need."

"I am Slav." The other alien admitted, a light in his helmet seeming to illuminate his face. "But I do not recall having met any Altean _sympathizers_."

 _Altean sympathizers_. The words were spat out with disgust, disdain, and coupled with the obvious fact that he didn't recognize them had Kethe tilting his head in confusion, his tail swishing behind him anxiously. This situation was only starting to make less and less sense.

"Okay, I think this _definitely_ is starting to qualify as being weirder than getting your memories stolen by a space witch." Hunk observed- and he did not know how he felt about being used as a measurement with which to determine some kind of weirdness quota. "...also what exactly _does_ Shiro smell like, Keith?"

Tail twitching, Kethe frowned. "Like Shiro."

What did he want him to say? That he smelled like vanilla?

(What even was _vanilla_.)

"Real helpful there, buddy." Lance remarked, before turning his attention back on Slav. "And how can you _not_ recognize me? We broke you out of space prison like, four weeks ago."

" _Five_ weeks ago." Pidge corrected, though she still looked somewhat distant. "Which is basically a month."

"You've never broken me out of any prison!" Slav protested, before pausing. "Unless-"

"-this is an alternate reality!"  
"-you're from an alternate reality!"

Alternate what now.

Wait- was that stuff Slav talked about actually _real_? It was a thought that sent a cold shiver up his spine, recalling again, the poor odds that he had given him.

He only half listened to Pidge's explanation as to how they had managed to slip into another reality- his gaze was instead fixed on the two not-stranger strangers, who smelled so much like people he already knew that he couldn't help but be thrown off by it. His gaze must have caught their attention- for not-Shiro turned his own on him, narrowing his eyes.

Oh, right. He'd forgotten part of his face was showing. The rest of his helmet's visor was still darkened, but the lavender fur and the tail were enough of a giveaway.

"You." And though the words were addressed to him, his gaze flickered over towards Allura for the span of an instant. "Remove your helmet."

Narrowing his eyes, Kethe turned his gaze away from not-Shiro, letting it fall on the actual Shiro. He might have listened to _him_ when he'd told him to unmask, but however much this man smelled like Shiro, he wasn't him.

"It's fine, Keith." Shiro told him. "Go on."

Frowning, Kethe reached up, pulling off his helmet, almost half grateful for the excuse. His braid tumbling out of it, falling over his shoulder, he met the eyes of the two.

"You're Galra." Not-Slav half whispered, uncharacteristically quiet- at least for the Slav he knew. He sounded... surprised. Surprised, and _troubled_.

"You got a problem with that?" Kethe asked.

Sven muttered something under his breath then, too low for him to fully make out what was being said. All he caught was the word _hoktril_ , but he had no idea what that even was. He didn't miss the pointed glance he cast towards his head as he said that, and unable to stop himself, Kethe felt his hand straying up towards it, wondering what it was that he seemed to expect to find there.

And why it made his fur stand on end.

"It is not _us_ who have the problem." Sven said. "But if the _Alteans_ find you-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence, an alarm sensor in not-Slav's suit having been tripped. They wasted very little time in switching gears- scurrying back up the ventilation shaft, the way they had come.

And while the princess seemed fixated on the idea of _more_ Alteans, Kethe didn't miss the way that the pair had told them to _run_.

He put his helmet back on, switching it back to enclosed mode.

His instincts told him this was wrong.

* * *

_Alteans_.

She could not believe her eyes.

There were Alteans on this ship.

How long had it been since she had seen another of her kind?

(She was _not_ counting Zarkon's witch among their number, vile and twisted creature that she was.)

And to hear that there was a reality where the terror of the Galra Empire had not come to fruition... she felt her heart surge in her chest at the news. A reality where Altea, her beloved Altea, still existed!

Though if she had to be quite honest, she did not know what to think of being referred to as _Empress_. There was something about it that seemed... _wrong_ , but perhaps that was simply because all her life, she had been referred to as princess.

General Hira was the name of the Altean that first bowed to her. Upon learning that she had come from a reality that had been overrun by the Galra, she had been quick to offer their assistance, should they be able to provide it, and her heart surged again at the offer. If they were able to obtain Altean allies in this war...

"Who are your companions, Empress?"

Oh, yes. She had been so caught up in the living, breathing Alteans before her, that she had nearly forgotten about the paladins. With a soft smile, she stepped aside, so as to properly introduce them.

"These are the paladins of Voltron." She told her. "They are the most substantial fighting force we have against the Galra Empire."

"Then it is very well met indeed." Hira said, turning her full focus on them- and frowning. For a moment, her expression seemed to darken.

Something clicked in Allura's mind, and she hurried to make her way over towards Shiro, on whom Hira's gaze had frozen. "This is Shiro, of Earth. He is the black paladin, and the leader of Voltron."

Her words seemed to provide her with some reassurances, but she did not miss the way her brow crinkled. "I see. You will have to forgive me, but you bare some resemblance to a rather nasty dissident that we have been attempting to capture for some years now."

There was something about the way that she spat out _dissident_ that gave Allura pause. She knew who she was referring to, of course- it must have been Sven.

She could tell her, of course, that he was aboard the ship. But something stopped her.

None of the other paladins came forward with that piece of information either. In truth, she found it hard to believe that Shiro, _any_ version of Shiro, could fight against the cause of peace, but she found it just as hard to believe that Alteans could cause such travesties that they would need to be fought against.

Again, Zarkon's witch plagued her mind, but she shook it off.

That was merely one Altean, alone. It meant nothing.

Even if she had done _horrid_ things, she thought, her gaze unintentionally trailing back towards Keith.

Hira's gaze followed.

If she thought that her expression had darkened before, it had only been a pale shadow of the way in which it did now. Though it was impossible to make out Keith's features past the shadow of his helmet, it did not hide everything- not when the new paladin armor that he had been given had been made with his new Galra features in mind.

She knew that expression, for she had once fixed one very much the same on him.

"Ah yes," stepping into Hira's view, she forced herself to smile, "-this is Keith, our red paladin."

"You must be desperate," Hira's voice was cool, in a way that made her skin prickle, "-if you have chosen to recruit a _Galra_ to your cause."

* * *

Kethe froze, alarm bells going off in his head.

He reached around for his knife again, before he recalled- _again_ \- that he didn't have it with him. All his instincts were screaming that he needed to get out of here, that he needed to get away.

He did not trust this woman.

"You can trust Keith." Shiro spoke, and he jerked his head towards him, finally feeling himself able to breathe again. He was still far from calm, every piece of him on edge- but he was reminded that the paladins held him with value, for all that he was.

He... still did not quite know what to make of this revelation.

He wished that he could say that it had washed away all of his issues, but there were still times that he found himself fearful that he was nothing more than a stranger wearing their friend's skin, afraid that their words were just that- merely words. There were times still, when he found himself wanting to retreat back to the sanctuary of the Blade of Marmora, where he could merely be Kethe.

But it had not been that long yet. He just... he needed time, that was all.

Time to embrace the idea of being _Keith_ as well.

There was still a fear there, that he would take too much time to do so, and that the paladins, for all their words, would grow tired of him. It brought him pain, that thought- the more he got to know them, the fonder he found himself feeling in regards to these humans.

It was strange to think, that when he had first met him, the only thing he could feel towards them was _resentment_. Now he understood that none of them treated the loss of Ulaz with ease- that in their eyes, the sacrifice of the one who he owed his freedom to, was a great one indeed.

Except, perhaps, for the princess. He still could not pin her down.

"So you say." Hira's cool observation made his fur stand on end. "Do you not think it a risk, Empress? I would never be one to question your judgement," except that is what you are doing right now, Kethe thought to himself, "-but a _Galra_?"

"Keith is... a long story." Allura told her. "But Shiro is correct. You can trust him. The lions of Voltron choose their paladins, and the red lion has chosen Keith- twice over, in fact."

He would be touched by the defense, but he honestly couldn't tell if she was defending him, or her own leadership choices. Probably the latter.

"Have him take off his helmet." Hira instructed, not looking at him, but rather, at Allura.

This again, Kethe thought to himself. At least Sven had the decency to ask him to do it himself.

"Keith, could you?" Allura asked.

For a long moment, Kethe merely held her gaze- before he grumbled, reaching up to pull off his helmet. Though the pressure release was the same as it had been before, somehow, he couldn't find any relaxation in it.

Hira, just as Sven and not-Slav had, looked past him. As if not seeing what she hoped to see, her brows knitted together, disgust vivid on her features.

"It would seem, Empress, that there is a way we can help you right now." Hira spoke, her gaze not wavering from him as she snapped her fingers. "Moxilus, hold him."

Kethe's gaze jerked up, falling on the only non Altean in their party- a strange, hulking alien of a race that he was not familiar with. Taking half a step back, he gritted his teeth, sensing a fight and readying himself for it.

Only to find himself flanked by Hunk and Lance, Pidge positioning herself in front of them. It would have been laughable, the smallest of them all out in front, but he had seen the viciousness with which she could fight.

They were... _defending_ him, some small part of him realized. Even as fear clawed at his heart, the realization gave him some small spark of hope.

"Hira please, there is no need for this." Allura spoke up, glancing between the Altean general and himself, as if she were trying to work out just what was happening here. He could almost smell her stress from here.

Shiro was still as death, but his guard was raised. He was watching.

"Moxilus, halt." Hira commanded- and just as he had before, the alien- _Moxilus_ \- froze. There was something disquieting about the ease with which he obeyed her commands, feeling as if he were just as much of a robot as the gladiators that flanked them. "Empress Allura, please. I only wish to be of assistance."

"By restraining one of my paladins?" Allura asked. "I fail to see how that is necessary."

"You misunderstand." The other Altean spoke now, and Kethe frowned, unable to recall if he had given his name or not. Either way, he did not like the look of this man. There was something to him that reminded him of the witch. "We seek to _help_ your paladin."

He did not think he wanted this man's help.

"Help?" Shiro asked. "What do you mean by _help_?"

"I understand that desperate times call for desperate measures, Empress, but there is too much risk to allow a Galra to call himself one of your allies." Hira spoke, her cold gaze falling on him- and he returned it with a glower of his own, teeth bared in a snarl.

Perhaps it was the wrong move, for she merely lifted her head to indicate it. "You see? His base nature is corrupt. We, however, hold the key to fix it, should you allow us."

"Fix-" Shiro began, narrowing his eyes. "There's nothing _wrong_ with Keith."

Technically, not true. There was plenty wrong with Keith, he thought to himself.

Hira merely turned that cold gaze of hers on Shiro, assessing him with a dispassionate glance, as if he too, had proven some kind of point of hers. "It is his base nature that is the issue. The Galra were an evil, _vile_ race- proven more clearly by the Galra Uprising than anything else."

"We wiped the Galra scourge from our reality," Hira continued- and it was a thought that truly sent a cold surge of fear through Kethe, the casual way with which she spoke of his people's _genocide_ , "-but with the technology that we have now, there is no need to rely on such brutish methods."

"Preservation of life is the Altean Empire's highest priority." The Altean man almost seemed to hum, producing a gleaming silver device. "The _hoktril_ can ensure that your Galra will not be a slave to his own nature, and you can be at peace knowing that he will never be able to betray you."

There was one just like it, Kethe noticed, fixed to the head of Moxilus.

Kethe drew his bayard, his grip on it so tight that the only thing keeping his claws from digging into his flesh was his armor. He did not know what that thing was, but he could almost _smell_ the stench of his cell from it, an image of the witch overlaying the Altean man who held it.

He didn't care what point it probably proved to these Alteans, he bared his fangs and growled. He would not let them touch him, would tear them apart with his teeth if needed, just so long as it kept them- and that thing- _away_ from him.

"Allura-" Shiro spoke up, his body language terse, tense.

"Hira, I can assure you, none of this is necessary." Allura told her, her tone strained. " _Please_."

"You say that it is not necessary, yet he draws his weapon on us." Hira observed, her tone cool, impassive.

"Uh, yeah, because I'm pretty sure you're threatening to mess with his head?" Lance piped up. "Pretty sure that after the whole deal with the witch, that's like, a _huge_ red flag for Keith."

"What is this _hoktril_ of yours even supposed to be?" Pidge asked. She looked as if she were two seconds away from drawing her own bayard, impressions be damned.

The man who reminded him too much of the witch looked almost pleased that she had asked. "It is our civilizations most advanced technological achievement. With it, we can rehabilitate our enemies, rather than have to spill unnecessary blood."

"Is your definition of rehabilitation _scrambling brains_?" Hunk asked. "Cause I can't help but notice that big dude over there doesn't do anything unless you tell him to."

"Moxilus here is living a very content existence as a non-cog." The man informed them. "Now that he is no longer a slave to his own brutish nature, he too, can understand true peace. Your red paladin can too."

"Non-cog." Kethe hissed, his tail swishing angrily behind him, the sound of his voice almost seeming to take the pair of Alteans by surprise. What, did they think he was so feral that he did not even know how to speak? "You want to take away my free will."

He had already been robbed of his memories, his body twisted and changed against his will- he was not going to allow a single thing more to be stolen from him.

"No."

Jerking his head towards Allura, fearing that her cold tone was directed towards him, he instead found her gaze fixed sharply on Hira.

"No, I will not allow you to do that to _my_ paladin."

Hira, for the span of a moment, almost seemed to be genuinely baffled by this reaction. "Empress, I can assure you, that once the procedure is completed-"

"There will be no procedure." Allura told her, drawing herself up, every bit the regal princess she could manage. "I will _not_ stand around here and listen to you continue to tell me how my paladin deserves to be robbed of thought merely because he is Galra."

"Come," she said, turning on her heel to face them, steel in her gaze, "-we are leaving."

* * *

They didn't let them go without a fight, but she had been expecting that.

Perhaps they would have not made it out of there on their own- but they had not been. The Guns of Gamara had been with them, and thanks to their efforts, they had been able to not only escape the other reality, but take the comet back with them, ensuring that the Altean Empire would never be able to forge trans-reality ships of their own.

She had never thought that she would turn her back on her own people, but if they were truly willing to take away the free will of other beings... then perhaps they were _not_ her people.

That she would turn her back on her own people for the sake of a _Galra_ \- well, she was still more than a little surprised by how things had managed to play themselves out.

Would she alter her choice any, if given a second chance? No, not one bit.

To rob Keith of his free will... a shudder ran down her spine at the mere thought. She would be lying if she claimed that she had grown used to the solid yellow of his eyes, but they were far better with a spark of fire in them, than they would ever be devoid of it.

That, she thought, had not changed.

The eyes were different, yes, very much so- but the spark they held was the same. On the ghost ship, the amount of hate and anger contained within them nearly made them monstrous- but he was _not_ the monster there.

The Alteans- her people- had been.

Because as much hate and anger as there had been in those eyes, she had not missed the _fear_.

He had been... he had been so very, very afraid. It had only shown through for the span of a moment, but she had seen it- the pure, unmitigated terror that had crossed his face.

He had vanished into the bowels of the ship almost as soon as they had returned to it. He had returned to his quarters for a short span, before vanishing again.

When she found him, he was on the observation deck. Sitting close to one of the great windows, he had drawn his knees close to his chest, his tail curled tightly around them. He had changed out of his paladin armor, and back into his Marmoran armor, the hood of it drawn up.

"Keith?"

For the span of a moment, he did not respond.

"Princess."

His tone was curt, betraying nothing.

"You may call me Allura, you know." She observed, drawing as close to him as she dared. When his body grew too tense, she halted, taking one step back, watching as his shoulders eased.

It was the first time the two had cause to be alone together, ever since she had ambushed him in the hallway. Likely, they had both been avoiding the other.

It was to be expected that silence would hang between them. Neither of them knew what to make of each other- though she had resolved herself to accept it, in truth, she still struggled with the idea of Keith being Galra.

And Keith... Keith struggled with a great many things, she suspected.

"...you sure you made the right choice, princess?"

The question startled her, more than a little.

"You could have gone back to Altea." Keith told her, his voice betraying nothing. "To your people."

And her heart ached at the thought. Altea, her _home_. Not a day went by that she did not long for it still. What she would give for a chance to see it, even once more.

"Not at the expense of your free will." Allura told him. "You have had... much taken from you already. I could not allow anything further."

"You think I would let them." Keith almost seemed to hiss. "I would not."

Oh, she knew.

He would rend flesh from bone if it meant escaping from capture for a second time. And if that did not work, he would, in all likelihood, take his own life before he could succumb to such a fate.

"I know that you would not." Allura told him, shaking her head. "But not even the promise of home would be enough for me to cast away my very moral fiber. If true peace can only be obtained by robbing the free will from others... then I want no part in it."

"...probably not the Altea you remember anyways."

His words were so faint, that she was almost positive that if her hearing were not as good as it was, she would have never heard him.

He was... trying to comfort her, she realized with a small shock. _Her_. He'd nearly had his very will stripped from him by her own kind, and he was trying to comfort _her_. She was the one who had lead them into that situation to begin with, insistent that they pursue what had turned out to very much be a trap after all.

"...likely not." Allura finally said, fixing her gaze on the window. "Perhaps it is for the best."

For a moment, they remained there, in silence.

Then slowly, Keith rose to his feet, tail uncurling from around his legs. Lowering his hood, he turned back to look at her, almost seeming to study her features for a moment. "Do you resent that the red lion took me back?"

"No." Allura told him. "Not anymore."

"Would you rather I look human?" He asked her- and though his gaze did not drop from her, she did not miss the way he clenched and unclenched his fists, letting his claws press into the palm of his hands.

Almost as if to reassure himself that they were still there.

It struck her then, in a way it had yet to. That to all of them, Keith's current appearance was one that had been forced upon him, a change that he had no say in. But to him... to him, it was all that he had cause to know.

Logically, she _knew_ this. By the time Keith had lost his memories, he had already been transformed. He had lived, for five months, nearly half a year, possessing only the knowledge that he was Galra, and nothing else. And why would he doubt it? He looked so very much like one- any trace of human in him had been almost totally wiped away.

So to be told that he once had been as such... how did that make him feel? To know that the face that he wore was not entirely his own, and yet at the same time, it being the only thing he had cause to be familiar with. She had heard from the paladins the way he had reacted to the glimpse he had gotten of himself as a human- and how he had recoiled from it, so violently that it nearly tore Voltron apart.

She realized, then, just what a loaded question that was.

"I- perhaps." Allura admitted after a moment. She could not lie to him, it would likely be much easier for her. "But would _you_?"

It was a question that caught him off guard, she saw it written on every inch of his face.

"I don't-" He began, before shaking his head. "I don't remember _being_ human. This is... this is all I know."

"Well then." Allura said. "That is all that really matters."

"That simple?" He asked, tail seeming to twitch in doubt.

"There is no one here who wishes for your discomfort, Keith." Allura told him. "My issues with the Galra... they run deep, I will admit. But they are _my_ issues, and it is on me to deal with them. I cannot force anyone to alter themselves for my own peace of mind."

He watched her for a moment longer, saying nothing.

"...thank you."

She did not expect that, not in the least.

"There is nothing to thank me for, Keith." Allura told him, a soft smile on her face. "Now come, the others are worried about you, and likely would appreciate seeing your face. And I believe you still have yet to ask Shiro about ghost ships."

He seemed to perk up at the mention, as if he had completely forgotten about all it.


End file.
